Google Dictionary – Free Multilingual Dictionary and Translator

Posted: December 12, 2009/Under: Internet/By: My Digital Life Editorial Team

Google search engine has a built-in ability to provide definition for word with “define:” operator. Any term or phrase that been used to search in the search engine with in the format of “define:term” will return not typical search result which list relevant and related web pages, but will display a list of definitions of the term available the web.
Been required to type “define:” prefix to search query every time to lookup for definitions may be inconvenient. To make it easier to search for definitions by Googlers, Google has added a dedicated dictionary to its vast pool of online services. The main feature of free Google Dictionary is support for bidirectional multilingual dictionary, with the help of Google Translate, to allow look-up of word or phrase in any supported language, and return definitions in respective translated languages.

The core of Google Dictionary service is similar to Google Search. Google Dictionary relies on web definitions from a few websites, including Wikipedia and WordNet, in addition to Google database of word definitions. Google Dictionary not only return definitions, but also details use of the phrase, including usage, style guide, idiom, phrasal, synonym, verb type and related phrases.

Another useful feature of Google Dictionary is ability to detect language encoding with auto-correction. If user enters a German word wrongly assumed it’s a French word or Italian term, Google Translate can auto change the Google Dictionary origin word encoding to correct language.